Storm cleanup continues at Manitowoc County school

CLEVELAND – Cleanup continues at an elementary school in Manitowoc County.

Over the weekend, strong winds damaged portions of Cleveland Elementary School, including two classrooms. The school shares a building with the Northeast Wisconsin Montessori Charter School.

“The canopy got ripped up and people in Cleveland, great community, they saw that and all the struts were there [and wondered] where’s the roof,” said Joe Sheehan, Sheboygan Area School District’s superintendent.

The clean up began even before the storm cleared.

“Water was just pouring through. Saturday it just rained. It rained all night so we got out the wet vacs and just kept cleaning up because the water was coming into here and if we’d not done that, I’m not sure how far the water would’ve gone,” Sheehan said.

Staff members are still removing damaged shelves, tile, and school supplies. A temporary roof was put in place Sunday.

Sheehan says both classroom will be under construction for about two weeks. In the meantime, students have to attend class inside the gym.

Some students like Amber Krause miss their old classroom.

“It feels weird. There’s usually…by the shelves there’s a wall and it’s loud because it echoes,” said Krause.

One teacher whose classroom is now in the gym is still surprised by the storm damaged.

“I was like wow it was very very impressive that the wind could do something like that,” said Matt Kawa

Another kindergarten class has been moved to the music and art room.

The superintendent says he still doesn’t know how much the repairs will cost but classes and construction will continue.